The Choices We Face

“Or”
It’s one of those words that can strike fear in our hearts.

What’s so scary about a short two letter word like “or”? To me that word represents choices, and the road not taken. You see, the word “or” is what we use when we have a choice between two or more options.

Sometimes the choices we make are presented to us by other people. Sometimes we know we have to make a choice. But often we make decisions so fast, or on autopilot, we may not think of them as a true choice. But everything you do or don’t do is a choice you’re making on what you want your life to be like.

• Do I want to have chicken or fish?
• Am I going  to bring my lunch from home or buy it at work?
• Should my son go to a magnet school or the local high school?
• Do I want to pay off the mortgage or invest? Or do I want to buy a big screen TV?
• Am I going to spend the evening watching TV, or reading a book to learn more on a topic that interests me?
• Should I stay late to finish this project or work from home after the kids go to bed?
• Do I want to wake up early to exercise or write an article for my blog, or should I just sleep in?

Some of these decisions are simple and have no lasting impact on you or your family. If you have chicken today, maybe it’s fish tomorrow instead. But your choices on what to do with your extra money, where your kids go to school, working on your business, what you do in your spare time, or whether you keep up with your health can have major impacts on you and your family over the long term.

So think about your “or”, and the decisions you’re making-either consciously or by default through inaction. If you can take control of the “or” you can change your life-one small decision at a time.